Does alphabetization carry influence? (the more input the better)

[sr71plt]

I looked at your list and you have quite a number of stories with the coveted red H,

Having red Hs with voting turned off? There is a technique here, though, of turning the voting off as soon (and if) the story hits with a red H, which tends to happen early on and then backs off if the voting is left on.

 

[legerdemer]

Having red Hs with voting turned off? There is a technique here, though, of turning the voting off as soon (and if) the story hits with a red H, which tends to happen early on and then backs off if the voting is left on.

True. But a harmless conceit. It takes you out of the running for contests, so it backfires in that way.

 

[sr71plt]

True. But a harmless conceit. It takes you out of the running for contests, so it backfires in that way.

Only if you have dreams of winning/placing in a contest. To let a story go to a red H and then turn off the voting sort of would fly in the face of posting that voting means nothing to you, though.

 

[Smokey125]

Indeed. I never planned to ever enter a contest anyway, so it doesn't matter. To be honest, I don't even know how I got that many red 'H's with the trolliferation one-bombing me left and right. But there are some very Royal Leaders and Loyal Readers out there to be sure. There has been some amazing feedback left on a bunch of the stuff...just not extremely recently.
I don't have to explain myself on this issue—I didn't bring up the subject of the 'H's—and so therefore I shan't. Turning the voting on or off depending on one's own judgment is that person's business and really no one else's.

 

[legerdemer]

Indeed. I never planned to ever enter a contest anyway, so it doesn't matter. To be honest, I don't even know how I got that many red 'H's with the trolliferation one-bombing me left and right. But there are some very Royal Leaders and Loyal Readers out there to be sure. There has been some amazing feedback left on a bunch of the stuff...just not extremely recently.
I don't have to explain myself on this issue—I didn't bring up the subject of the 'H's—and so therefore I shan't. Turning the voting on or off depending on one's own judgment is that person's business and really no one else's.

I agree with you, FWIW. Your stories, your right, your business.

 

[Smokey125]

legerdemer

IWAL (It's worth a lot).

 

[sr71plt]

Well, no, but posting that voting means nothing to you and then leaving the voting open until the story goes to a red H and then turning the voting off certainly don't jive. You're the one who posted that the voting is meaningless. Obviously you want your stories to do well in some dimension, as you've come up with one of the more off-beat "how do I get more?" threads that I've seen on the forum.

You seem a little touchy (like with rjordan), so I'll leave you to the thread.

 

[Smokey125]

sr71plt

If you feel I'm touchy, you're entitled to your opinion. My opinion is that you seem unable to drop the issue of alleged incongruity between two elements that really are not that closely related. I proceed to add that you were not required nor commissioned to respond to the thread in the first place. But feel free to go on claiming that I'm touchy. It won't perturb me in the slightest.

 

[Boxlicker101]

This ignores what I posted about the end of the alphabet being as influential as the beginning. My Z story has four times the number of votes of any other story on my list--and there's nothing particularly significant or comparatively wonderful about that story.

My experience says otherwise. The story I mentioned, with 1.5 million views, has many times the number of views than others about the same people. I have another story, "JLo's" Ass Again with 137,000 views and the original, The Ass of Jennifer Lopez, with 141,000 views in 4-12 years longer.

I believe, however, the quotation marks are less influential than they used to be.

 

[Smokey125]

Boxlicker101

I guess everyone's experience is going to be a little different. Kind of makes me want to publish another story with quotation marks around the title as an experiment, just to see. We'll wait and see what happens...it's been taking me a little while to get my most recent work off the ground. But I have been successfully cranking out a story per month so far this year (along with my multi-part lesbian retrospective). So I'm sure it'll be up sometime in July.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The New Stories list holds about seven days worth of stories, and it's ordered from newest to oldest. Looking at the latest New Stories, the titles (in order) begin with: S, T, M, F, S, F, D, R, B, M. Not alphabetical.

The new stories do come out in batches, and in my experience, where your story sits within that batch (and how long until the next batch) makes a big difference to initial views. I've had some that sat near the top of the first page for almost a day, and some that were bumped to page 2 within hours, and that definitely does affect views, but it's not something you can influence so no point in worrying about it.

Category and blurb can also make a big difference to viewer counts.

Whoops, should add - I was responding specifically to the "new stories" bit. In the category hubs, stories are arranged alphabetically and I can believe that in the long term, that will have an effect on how many views you get. But it'll take a while before you notice that; in my experience the first week, while stories are still on the New Stories list, gets about as many views as the rest of the first year.

 

[Smokey125]

Bramble

Aha. So I was kinda cumming down the right path in that regard.

 

[NotWise]

I'm scratching my head. I only know of two places where the stories are alphabetized; on your submissions page (which readers don't see) and in the list linked at the top of the category hub. The list in the category hub is only useful if a reader knows the title. New stories are listed sequentially.

There are a few factors I can think of that will make one story gain a lot of views and votes while others don't.

Of course, some categories get a lot more traffic than others.

If it has an explicit title, or a title that otherwise grabs attention then it will get more views.

If it has an explicit description of a description that gets attention then it will get more views.

if the author is well-known in the category then their story will get more views.

If a story is near the top of the list on the day it posts then it may get more attention and be visible longer, which leads to more views.

A new chapter in a popular story can get a lot of views fast, but then is likely to plateau.

If your story has a high score and/or a lot of favorites or comments that might earn it more views, but I think those factors are easily outweighed by others.

I don't think we can say for sure how a view is counted. If a view is counted when someone opens the story (a likely scenario) then the content of the story has nothing at all to do with views. No-one would see the content until after their view was counted.

In my short experience, the title and description are large factors. The second story I posted to Lit was my first post in I/T, so there was no name recognition. It was at or near the top of the new list and it had a short, catchy title and an interesting description. The morning it went up it was getting thousands of views/minute. That didn't last long. I've also not seen that happen since.

 

[Smokey125]

NotWise

Thanks NW, good little bit of stuff to think about. After considering what I've been told here, I've started thinking more than anything else it's sort of a wheel of fortune, a toss of the proverbial dice. I've also read threads about the statistically best day of the week to post a story, and there wasn't really a concrete answer on that. Guess all things considered, the best course of strategy is to really concentrate on the title and description, and do as I've been doing otherwise.